KEEPING WEANING SIMPLE

By Dr. Austin Traphagan, Solomon Valley Veterinary Hospital, Production Animal Consultation

No two operations have the exact same method for weaning calves. Whether it is facility, labor, or land constraints, every producer has limitations that make their situation unique. The end goal of weaning calves is to successfully remove the calf from physical contact with the dam and remove milk from the calf’s diet. If done appropriately and timely, the calves are better prepared for the long term or finishing process and the cows are relieved of a nutritional burden, which will improve their future reproductive efficiency and ability to raise the next round of calves.

Why is the pre-weaning/weaning process so important?

How a producer weans their calves can be beneficial or hurtful regardless of their plans for ownership once the weaning dust has settled. For those producers that plan on selling directly to backgrounders or feedlots, practicing proper pre-weaning/weaning techniques can help continuously produce healthy and high-performing calves worth premium prices. For producers who plan on keeping calves through some of or entirely through the feeding process, they can enjoy a number of benefits such as reduced disease in their calves, reduced time and cost for treatments, higher weight gains, and overall quieter weaning pens. By putting in the extra time and resources to decrease the stresses felt by your calf crop, the more profitable it will be in the long run.

Simple ways to help your calves

The techniques and methods used to accomplish weaning should be planned to prepare calves for one of the most stressful events of their life. Fortunately, weaning does not have to be an overly complicated process. No single method or step is the magic answer to issues experienced while weaning but all have potential to decrease or limit those issues felt by your calf crop. By thinking ahead and using some of these tools, a producer can help to limit the potential for sickness in their calves, economic losses during the weaning process, and in some situations, calf mortality.

Pre-weaning

Weaning typically takes place around 7-10 months of age. Ideally a producer’s weaning plan involves practices that start prior to actual weaning, starting with health and vaccine management. By getting other stressful events such as castration, dehorning, branding, and a first round of vaccinations accomplished long before cow-calf weaning, you can help decrease the sickness that the group of calves experiences. Additionally, bringing the calves through a second time and preconditioning with a second round of vaccinations not only further jump starts the immune system and decreases the amount of sickness experienced by the group at home but makes them a more desirable set of calves going forward. Optimally, giving preconditioning vaccinations 45 days prior to weaning would be ideal. Administering at least two weeks prior to weaning is necessary to allow for some immune stimulation to occur, making the vaccinations beneficial. By accomplishing all of these tasks long before the weaning process begins, you effectively cut down the stress felt by the calf from two events, losing contact with the mother and transitioning to feed.

Weaning

When the time comes to separate the calves, lowstress cattle handling will always be beneficial. Moving cattle quietly and calmly through well-designed facilities can help to keep calves healthy. The more you practice this technique and handle the cattle, the less stress they will experience each time you bring them into the corrals. As much as low-stress handling is preached in the industry, the same can be said for weaning techniques. Low-stress weaning techniques such as twostage weaning or fenceline weaning can provide improved calf health when compared to weaning the calf from the cow and moving the two groups to separate locations directly. Both provide a more gradual approach that makes the process easier on the calves.

In the two-step method, the calves are initially ran through the chute and an anti-suckling device/paddle is placed in the nose of the calves. The device prevents the calf’s ability to suck the mother. The calf is then placed back with the mother and the paddle is left in place for 5-7 days. Over this time, the calf is weaned from milk in the diet and starts to eat more forages. At the end of this time period, the paddle is removed before the nose gets damaged and calves are removed from the cows. The downside to this method is that calves require multiple trips though the chute, but by removing the milk from the diet with continued maternal contact, calves are less stressed when trying to transition over to forages full time.

Fenceline weaning on the other hand is an option that does not require extra trips through the chute. However, it does require extra space. The idea of fenceline weaning is to separate the dams and calves in adjacent pastures where they can maintain visual and muzzle-to-muzzle contact through the fence. Contact is maintained for at least 3-4 days. In an ideal setting, the calves would remain in the same pasture and the cows would be moved out. By keeping calves in the same environment, they already have some idea where the feed and water can be found. It is always more beneficial to move the older animals when possible as they can deal with that stress more easily than the calves. Research conducted over varying methods using low-stress practices shows that calves weaned using these techniques have a treatment rate of only 5-10%, instead of the 25-30% which can be seen in abruptly weaned calves.

Post Weaning

Once calves are introduced into their new environment, making sure water sources are available and easy to find is key. Calves will find water by sight, smell, and sound so anything that can be done to increase their ability to ‘stumble’ into some water is a positive. This can include anything from fenceline water tanks, as calves will be walking the fences, to adding additional lower-sided stock tanks in the pens that may resemble what the calves are used to in the pasture. Letting tanks run over or pulling the plugs out of automatic waterers are also great ways to help calves find water. Aside from water, a proper starter ration is the second most important aspect of weaning. Getting the calves to eat is the first step; then gradual changes in feed are made after establishing intake. Plenty of hay should be kept in the bunks and it should be fluffed regularly. Being able to see the hay will help calves in finding it and having some hanging over the side to the ground is beneficial.

Once calves are bunk broke and clean up the hay they are given, they can be transitioned to hotter feeds or total mixed rations (TMRs). Calves should be eating around 1.5% of their body weight within the first week and a half on feed. If calves have been creep fed in the past, bunk breaking may occur faster. The use of ionophores that act as coccidiostats, such as rumensin, is also a tool that can be utilized when the calves start to clean up feed from the bunks. Stressed, freshly weaned calves that are put into confinement situations are much higher risk to break with coccidiosis. By feeding this additive to calves, you can help to keep a smooth transition over to feed and decrease potential for treating individual calves that start to show clinical signs.

Last, acclimating calves by quietly moving them around the pen or pasture when they reach their destination is an additional way to help facilitate feed and water intake. Doing this repeatedly for the first few days in the new setting will help them to locate feed and water faster as well as provide them opportunities to interact with their caregivers. This contact will pay further dividends later on as it prepares the calves for experiences with the pen riders and doctoring crews.

Weaning calves is an important part of the production process. Whether or not you are there to see how it affects the calves down the road, it will continually reflect their overall performance. Luckily, it really does not have to be a complicated process. Preparing the calves ahead of time, providing a little support when separating, and providing proper nutrition for freshly weaned calves are simple steps to troubleshoot most weaning problems long before they happen.

Dr. Austin Traphagan graduated with his DVM from Kansas State University in 2020. He is a Colorado native who grew up on the northeastern plains of the state in Yuma, Colorado. He grew up splitting much of his time between his father’s mixed veterinary practice and the rest of his family’s cow-calf operations and small feed yard. After attending the University of Wyoming, he made his way to Manhattan and Kansas State. Since graduating, he has been practicing at the bustling Solomon Valley Veterinary Hospital in Beloit, Kansas.